Critics applauded the film as a visual and cinematic masterpiece, carefully scripted and filmed under Visconti’s meticulous scrutiny down to the last detail of society in Venice at that time. Visconti’s choice to use excerpts from Mahler’s 3rd, 7th, and the haunting Adagietto movement of his 5th Symphony infused the film with an operatic mood of grandeur and tragedy. The film was a critical triumph for Visconti and Bogarde. At Cannes, the audience gave the film a standing ovation. (An Orderly Man, 86) Yet Bogarde recalls how it ‘was widely misunderstood in distribution circles . . . Someone in the States wanted to change the boy into a girl, in case people thought it was a “fag movie”.’ (Castell, Oct 1975, 59)

Through the years, Bogarde and his directors were repeatedly plagued by the same production problems: getting the finances for a film, actually making it, and then having it distributed in an unedited, unbutchered version. Creative life never became any easier.

Along with his finest roles in the ‘70s, Bogarde accepted a brief part as a Brit turned Russian spy in The Serpent (1973) ’to act with Henry Fonda’ and to work with director Henri Verneuil, who was, Bogarde explained, ‘the first French director, apart from Alain [Resnais] who had asked me to work with him.’ Playing the role would also give him time in front of the camera again after a long break. ‘It had been three years since I had made a film . . . It was really all one mammoth dress rehearsal for The Night Porter.’ (Castell, June 1974, 387)